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Felise Katz, co-founder and CEO of Montvale, New Jersey solution provider PKA Technologies, received CRN’s 2026 Best of the Channel Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony held October 14, 2026, at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre. The honor recognizes nearly three decades of channel leadership centered on customer trust, integrity, mentorship and the ability to adapt as technology changed.
Katz built PKA with her husband, technologist Peter Katz, after the pair concluded that midmarket customers were not receiving the attention they deserved from larger providers. Her career combines hands-on customer service with a deliberate effort to develop people and expand the company’s technical capabilities.
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Why Felise Katz won CRN’s Lifetime Achievement Award
CRN’s award recognizes a career rather than a single product launch or financial milestone. Colleagues describe Katz as a leader who listens closely, accepts personal responsibility and remains present when customers and employees need help. Her approach is grounded in long-term relationships instead of transactional selling.
“I’m a listener,” Katz said. That emphasis on listening shaped both her customer relationships and PKA’s internal decisions. Terry Richardson, a former HP executive, said Katz “really led by example, and she set a pretty high bar for what commitment looks like.”
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- Pages: 244
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PKA’s customers include midmarket organizations, a segment Katz believed was underserved. “We were both end users. We were customers, and we did not like the way that we got treated,” she said. “We can do a much better job in the midmarket space.”
How Katz and her husband built PKA
From customer frustration to a solution provider
Katz’s parents, immigrants from Germany and Austria, instilled the work ethic she brought to the business. She and Peter started PKA after experiencing poor treatment as customers themselves. Peter initially ran the company while Katz concentrated on sales and marketing. Around 2000, they switched responsibilities, and Katz became CEO.
That transition placed her at the center of both business strategy and the company’s operating culture. Some PKA customers have remained with the company since its inception, a sign of the durable relationships Katz has treated as a core business asset. The available coverage does not establish a verified customer count, revenue figure or employee total.
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Hurricane Sandy offered a vivid example of Katz’s definition of service. When a customer’s equipment was underwater, Katz and family members removed servers from PKA’s demonstration room and drove them to affected customers.
“We took out servers from our demo room and brought them to customers who were underwater,” Katz recalled. “That’s where you are able to show your value. That’s where you’re able to just make things happen. And people remember those things.”
How PKA evolved beyond traditional infrastructure
PKA began with consulting and conventional infrastructure work, then expanded as customers’ requirements changed. Its capabilities grew to include networking, storage, security, cloud and, increasingly, artificial intelligence, while the company continues to sell hardware, software and services.
Katz has described that expansion as a leadership-team decision requiring hiring, training and capability building—not simply adding another product line. “We had no idea what it meant to have the backbone of a company or organization be on the networking side,” she said. The comment captures the risk of moving into a new technical discipline: a provider must develop the people and operational depth to support it.
PKA is now moving from an infrastructure-centered model toward AI-related work. Katz’s broader lesson is direct: “You have to keep adapting.” The company’s evolution illustrates how a midmarket provider can broaden its portfolio without abandoning the hardware, software and services that existing customers still need.
What Katz’s leadership looks like in practice
| Leadership dimension | Katz’s approach | Evidence described by colleagues and coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Customer relationships | Trust and long-term service over one-time transactions | Emergency support during Hurricane Sandy and customers who stayed with PKA over many years |
| Executive involvement | Hands-on participation when circumstances demand it | Katz personally helped deliver replacement servers to customers affected by flooding |
| Growth strategy | Steady capability building rather than expansion for its own sake | Leadership-team decisions to hire and develop expertise in networking, cloud and AI |
| People development | Mentorship, accountability and opening opportunities | Colleagues credit Katz with developing leaders and supporting women in the technology channel |
Ricky Liber, PKA’s vice president of operations, said Katz “taught me how to take care of the people who do theirs.” Her son Eli Katz, PKA’s director of cloud and consumption, described a style marked by “class and exuberance and excitement and respect.” Together, the comments point to a culture in which operational performance and personal conduct are treated as inseparable.
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How Felise Katz has supported women in technology
Katz’s influence extends beyond PKA. Colleagues describe her as a hands-on mentor who developed leaders, shared access to opportunities and helped open doors for women in the technology channel. The recognition therefore reflects both what she built as a CEO and the people who advanced after working with her.
The coverage does not provide a numerical measure of how many women Katz has mentored or a separate program name. Its evidence is qualitative: testimony from colleagues and the repeated description of Katz as someone who invests time in people, sets a demanding example and creates room for others to lead.
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Show value when customers are under pressure
The Sandy response demonstrates that trust is earned most visibly during disruptions. Replacing equipment quickly mattered, but the willingness to act personally made the response memorable.
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Listen before changing direction
Katz’s listening-first approach connects customer feedback to strategic decisions. It helped PKA identify where midmarket buyers needed better support and when new capabilities such as networking, cloud and AI had become essential.
Build capabilities before selling them
Entering a new technical market requires hiring, training and operational processes. PKA’s networking expansion shows why leadership teams must understand the organizational backbone behind a service, not just its market demand.
Make mentorship part of operations
Katz’s colleagues associate her leadership with developing people, not merely directing them. That model treats inclusion and succession planning as everyday management responsibilities.
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What the award means for the channel
CRN’s 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award places Katz among channel leaders whose impact is measured in relationships, resilience and people developed over time. Her story is especially relevant to solution providers serving midmarket customers, where responsiveness and trust can matter as much as technical breadth.
PKA’s path—from consulting and infrastructure to networking, storage, security, cloud and AI—also shows that adaptation is continuous. Katz’s record suggests that a provider can change its technology mix while keeping a stable promise: listen carefully, take responsibility and show up when customers need help.
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